Jones Packaging, a provider of pharmaceutical packaging solutions, has switched to Rimini Street support for its SAP ERP application, resulting in substantial reduction in annual support fees and avoiding unnecessary upgrade costs.

The switchover has also enabled the Canadian packaging company to eliminate labor costs related to customization support.

The surplus cash has enabled Jones Packaging to allocate funds for IT initiatives across the company.

Jones Packaging, which initially planned to update its SAP system because the software was operating on older computers, conducted a review and opted for Rimini Street instead, as the upgrade would be costly.

Moreover, the review also concluded that the upgrade was unnecessary since the current SAP system was meeting the needs of the company, and such costs would stall investment in new IT initiatives at least for the next year.

After discussions, Rimini Street team identified several strategies, including virtual desktop infrastructure, operating system enhancements and container technologies, for future-proofing the SAP system at Jones Packaging without upgrading the systems.

With the switchover to Rimini Street, Jones Packaging is able to receive tailored support for its customized system through a dedicated Primary Support Engineer (PSE).

Jones Packaging also makes use of Rimini’s experience in providing timely tax, legal and regulatory updates, free of cost.

Jones Packaging chief financial officer Rick Jankura said: “We saw no material tangible benefit for our business to upgrade to the next SAP release. We also wanted to avoid dedicating time and resources to migrating systems, and risking a potential business outage in the upgrade process.”

“Looking at our options and learning more about Rimini Street, we saw we could keep our existing robust SAP system and at the same time, save significant time and money that could be reinvested in the business.”

Rimini Street CEO Seth A Ravin said: “We have been a solution for many manufacturing clients around the world, like Jones, where we have helped these clients reallocate significant savings from their total annual maintenance costs, and reinvest these savings back into their business for competitive advantage and growth.”